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What is Going To Be The Next Step in Evolution?

The next step(s) in the
evolution
of the human race is going to happen at the level of consciousness.
This is the concept proposed by Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, S.J. in his
mystical vision of the evolution of life on Earth from one-celled
microorganisms to human beings and beyond in the book Le
Phénomène Humain -- The Phenomenon of Man. Teilhard's
vision proposed a
kind of collective consciousness in the future in which all individual
human beings would actively and directly perceive themselves as parts
of
a planetary mind. Teilhard called this "The Omega Point" and identified
it as what we might call the metaphorand for the Mystical Body of
Christ and its status as something coming in the future as the
metaphorand of human evolution.

(The
idea of "metaphorand" comes from
Julian Jaynes who used it in the wonderful book of the early 1970s The Origins of Consciousness in the
Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind
as the word for the actual item in reality that the metaphors of
myth and religion refers to, since they can't be spoken of or conceived
of directly. To wit, metaphorize is to metaphorand as multiply is to
multiplicand: i.e., the thing meaphorized is to the thing multiplied).

I propose this next step
will show up as a common experience of irrepressible compassion. When
we see somebody else struggling with their experience, we will
automatically identify with them and feel the struggle as our own.

We will literally "feel" the sufferings and joys of others.

We do this now by effort and intention. A major function of religion is
to inculcate the motivation for being compassionate. And the central
rule of all ethics and morals is expressed in the Golden Rule: Do unto
others as you would have them do to you.

This IS what "love" means as a commandment and a virtue of religion.

Television is making us conscious of the experience of others in a way
no medium of the past ever could. Actually seeing others' plight makes
us feel the plight.

We currently tend to defend ourselves against this kind of experience
of compassion. It's derided as being a "bleeding heart." (Curiously,
religious "conservatives" dismiss the so-called "bleeding heart
liberals" even though a major icon of Christian religion is the Sacred
Heart--bleeding heart--of Jesus, saving the world through compassion
for sinners and forgiveness of sins.)

Interestingly, sexual identity is one of the major bulwarks against
compassion. Men show themselves "manly" by repressing these kinds of
sensitive feelings. And women, while feeling these feelings deeply,
show themselves subservient to men by repressing them out of
embarrassment.

That is, the duality that being male and female creates in human
consciousness creates a barrier to being truly compassionate and kind.
Indeed, this duality then shows up as the polarity of "good and evil"
and the justification for not being compassionate of others is the
judgment that they are "wrong" -- or that it's their own fault they are
suffering.

So the next step in evolution includes getting over the apparent
duality of the world into "good and evil" and "male and female."

The rise of gay consciousness and self-awareness of sexual orientation
is an evolutionary step in moving human consciousness beyond the
dualities.

Another element of the next step in the evolution of
consciousness (perhaps paralleling the self-awareness of
differing sexual orientations in different individuals) is the
self-awareness of consciousness itself.

This awareness of consciousness manifests as the realization and
understanding that consciousness is the metaphorand of "God." What the
myths and stories of religion are really about is the nature of
consciousness. The myths are true insofar as they describe states and
levels of human awareness. They are true insofar as they are about mind
and inner states.

A general principle in analyzing mythology (which I learned from Joseph
Campbell) is that the future represents depth of consciousness. When I
say to someone I am deeply
infatuated with: "I will love you forever," what I am saying really
isn't about future time but about intensity in the present. When we say
Jesus will come again, we really mean that our expectation of a better
world comes intensely and deeply out of our being.

So the next step(s) in evolution is: 1) irrepressible automatic
compassion for others and 2) waking up to the real meaning of religion
and myth as clues to the nature of consciousness.

And on an individual, sexual level, this is appearing as a realization
that sexual arousal and pleasure has deep value for its own sake (not
just for reproduction) because it makes us conscious of the dynamics of
consciousness. And valuing sexual pleasure as a good in its own right
moves sexuality out of biology and into mind and therefore beyond the
duality of heterosexuality.

I believe these three elements of evolution--feeling compassion,
understanding myth, and transcending heterosexual roles--are all
different appearances of the same thing: the self-awareness of the
cosmos. And this is what is metaphorized as God's love of creation.

I learned a lot of what I think & believe about the deeper nature
of the universe from Arthur C. Clarke. I've written a couple of
articles about him.

Toby Johnson, PhDis
author of nine books: three non-fiction books that apply the wisdom of
his
teacher and "wise old man," Joseph Campbell to modern-day social and
religious problems, four gay genre novels that dramatize spiritual
issues at the heart of gay identity, and two books on gay men's
spiritualities and the mystical experience of homosexuality and editor
of a collection of "myths" of gay men's consciousness.

Johnson's book
GAY
SPIRITUALITY: The Role of Gay Identity in the Transformation of
Human Consciousness won a Lambda Literary Award in 2000.

His GAY
PERSPECTIVE: Things Our [Homo]sexuality Tells Us about the Nature
of God and the Universe was nominated for a Lammy in 2003. They
remain
in
print.

FINDING
YOUR OWN TRUE MYTH: What I Learned from Joseph Campbell: The Myth
of the Great Secret III tells the story of Johnson's learning the
real nature of religion and myth and discovering the spiritual
qualities of gay male consciousness.